


Bright the Hawk's Flight on the Empty Sky

by cakelocked



Series: The Light of Her Voice [2]
Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Adventure, Gen, Grieving, Light Angst, New Machines, forbidden west
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-08 05:43:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17975534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cakelocked/pseuds/cakelocked
Summary: Aloy journeys into the Forbidden West to search for Elisabet.





	Bright the Hawk's Flight on the Empty Sky

**Author's Note:**

> I came up with new machines for this fic and there's other new stuff that Aloy encounters in the Forbidden West. Let's just say that I had fun times with Horizon wikia with this one. 
> 
> Again thanks for my wonderful beta [birdwithoutbones](http://birdwithoutbones.tumblr.com/)

“Let’s do this. Sure, yeah,” Aloy muttered, as she sneaked closer to the canyon leading to the Forbidden Lands.

 

She’d already managed to travel past Sunfall without being detected by the few remaining Shadow Carja, now camped outside their former citadel, angry and unsure of their future. Aloy shook her head as she thought about the situation. She was sure that Avad would have his hands full for the time being.

 

_I’m glad they didn’t see me; it would’ve been a mess. Not to mention a delay._

 

She activated her Focus and scanned the canyon, just to make sure it was as empty as it looked like.

 

 _Well... you never know when there might be stalkers around,_ she mused and grabbed a rock from her collection, tossing it as far as she could before freezing in place, and waiting for a possible reaction.

 

Nothing; the coast was clear.

 

“Ok. Time to go.” She shouldered her packs and turned to get a last look of the land she was leaving behind for the time being. She could see Rustwash Tallneck walking its steady circle, and spy glints of smaller machines patrolling around it as the sun reflected off their metal.

 

Aloy thought that she could also see a small glint of a Stormbird flying on the horizon. Drawing a long breath and letting it out, she turned her back on the known lands, and set off to the unknown.

 

///

 

The terrain didn’t change drastically, nor did strange machines attack her on her first day outside the known lands. Aloy didn’t know what she’d expected after reading the Carja glyphs about the Forbidden West, but this wasn’t it. After the initial feel of danger and excitement, it almost felt boring.

 

Nonetheless, she didn’t relax her guard.

 _I really should have kept that overridden Charger with me_ , she thought to herself. Instead, she’d left the machine behind on the road leading to Sunfall, hoping that it would find its way to wherever it wanted to go.

 

 _Carrying all these bags is annoying_ , Aloy thought as she climbed up a hill. Then she chuckled, as she imagined just what Rost would’ve said about that. He’d very been strict about the essentials that the hunter would need, and could carry. His number one rule was not too little, or too much.

 

“A Brave must always be able to carry their gear. Remember that, Aloy.” Aloy could almost hear his voice in her head. Oh, how she missed him.

 

 _I guess I’ve gotten a bit soft after I realised I could use a mount to carry my things_ , she thought wistfully.

 

A loud metallic crash coming from the far left brought her swiftly back to the present. Aloy had a bow and arrow ready in a blink. Then, she activated her Focus and took cover behind two large rocks beside the miniscule trail she’d been following.

 

The Focus revealed nothing, but she could hear more crashes slowly getting closer to her.

 

 _It has to be a machine_ , she mused. The crashing sounded metallic and way too loud to be a person, or even a larger group of people.

 

Aloy pushed her bags closer the base of the rocks and waited.

 

 _There!_ Her Focus picked up an outline of a machine she’d never seen before. It reminded her vaguely of a Rockbreaker, but in a much smaller size. There was also something reminiscent of HEPHAESTOS’s Frostclaw design mixed in. Something else was also familiar about the machine, and Aloy strained her memory until it came to her: the holograms of ancient animals that Montana Recreations had made.

The machine made clicking and whirring sounds moving slowly forward, going past Aloy. Her Focus showed the machine, and its weak and strong points, but curiously, it didn’t name it.

 

The machine hit its front paws on the ground, which made a metallic crash that Aloy had heard before. Then, it honed in on a formation of rocks further away from Aloy’s position, and ambled over to them.  It burrowed its way underground, leaving a large mound of loose soil behind it.

 

Just as Aloy thought it had disappeared for good, the rocks started to shake, and then they sunk beneath the ground.

 

“Okay...” Aloy exhaled.

 

The ground vibrated a couple of times before a shallow mound of small rocks was all that was left of the larger rock formation. The machine was gone as well, though Aloy waited for a while just to make sure it had truly left.

 

“That was new...” she mused out loud before collecting her things and continuing forward.

 

Aloy tapped her Focus, and opened a connection to GAIA.

 

“Hey did you get that? Was that one of your machines?” she asked her.

 

“Hello, Aloy. I reviewed the scans your Focus took. It is one of my machines, designed for terraforming. I suspect that it was an early prototype of a Rockbreaker.”

 

“Does it have a name? The Focus couldn’t tell me?” Aloy continued her questioning.

 

GAIA was quiet for a moment, and then spoke: “I am... not sure. It seems that my databanks on the machines are not complete. It is likely that my self-destruction partially corrupted or destroyed some of my stored data. I know what the function of the machine is, but I cannot tell you the model’s name.”

 

GAIA sounded clearly upset.

 

“Hey, GAIA. It’s okay.” Aloy said in a calming tone.

 

“You can fill me in on the details you have, and we’ll continue later. Who knows, maybe we’ll find something that helps restore your memory,” she continued.

 

Aloy hoped her words helped GAIA, even though she didn’t really know how to console an AI.

 

“Thank you, Aloy. I believe that I feel better now. Though I must confess, the knowledge that my memory banks have been corrupted is distressing. I also find it fascinating that a moment ago I had no idea that anything was missing, and therefore did not miss it.”

 

Aloy walked on, keeping the connection open while observing the surroundings closely in case the machine came back.

 

GAIA continued after a brief silence: “I have researched my database of the machine designs, and I believe I have found the entry for the machine you encountered. Some of it has indeed been corrupted, but the machine itself has been modelled after a badger.”

 

Aloy hummed thoughtfully. “Really,” she said. “A badger?”

 

She thought about it for a minute, remembering the machine’s round shape and the way it moved.  “Okay, I guess there is a _slight_ resemblance,” she admitted.

 

As GAIA told her stories about ancient wildlife, and how it had inspired her in designing the machines, the day came slowly to an end. Just as the sun touched the horizon, Aloy came to a stop and made camp.

 

///

 

The next few days were uneventful, though the scenery was in flux. Aloy had left behind the slopes, and come to a plateau. She hadn’t seen any more strange machines. Instead, she’d seen familiar ones. A couple herds of Striders had grazed the hills with Watchers accompanying them.

 

In addition to those, she’d spied some Scrappers and even a couple of Snapmaws beside a shallow stream. It had been almost peaceful. So peaceful that she’d started to wonder what had scared the Carja adventurers so badly.

 

 _Maybe they saw one unfamiliar machine and chickened out_ , she mused.

 

Aloy stopped suddenly, as she saw the road before her. It was black. The ground she’d travelled on – rocks mixed with scrappy green hay and small bushes – came to a sudden and unnatural end. Going forward, everything was black sand and rock with no vegetation on sight.

 

“This isn’t natural,” she stated, as she tapped the Focus and scanned the ground. The scan was clean of any dangers, but reported some unusual chemical properties on the ground. Aloy didn’t know what to make of the scientific data, and instead she tagged it and sent it to GAIA for analysis.

 

“It’s not dangerous, so I guess I’ll just continue forward,” she mused before consulting her map. Just as she thought, the road to Elisabet’s home went straight through the black plains.

 

Aloy drew a long breath and straightened her back before stepping forwards.

 

 “Ok... here we go.”

 

///

 

GAIA had reported back with some fascinating news about the unusual makeup of the terrain, but even she hadn’t had definite answers for the cause of it.

“One of the possible causes for the black terrain and missing vegetation is that for some reason, the terraforming of this region has failed. The terrain you are seeing now is left in the same condition as the world was after the Faro swarm,” the AI explained to Aloy.

 

GAIA’s words hadn’t eased Aloy’s mood. She looked at the bleak blackness where nothing grew and shuddered. The thought of the whole world looking like that… She had thought that she understood at least some of the terrible destruction the Faro robots had caused, seeing quick flashes of terror and destruction on various recordings she’d watched.

 

But now, faced with these plains of dead blackness, Aloy felt that horror anew.

 

Despite the unnerving blackness of the ground, the track through the plains went smoothly.

_The Carja were definitely onto something_ , she thought as she tracked on. _Maybe they didn’t understand why, but they still felt that something was wrong here_.

 

Though her journey through the plains had gone without problems, Aloy was happy when the scenery changed. She welcomed the normal ground back, even though it was littered with big stones and sparse trees which made moving more difficult. Seeing lush green after the dead blackness made her feel much better.

 

The ground started to slope gently downwards, and she made good time walking. The trees grew more numerous, finally adding up to a proper forest. Then, it too was gone, and replaced by plains, this time full of grass.

 

The grass was tall and came up to Aloy’s waist. She spotted signs that someone had walked there, small paths that went through the grass. She followed them to a bigger, well-trodden path, sure of the fact that it would lead her somewhere.

_Preferably to people I can trade with. My supplies are getting a bit too low_.

GAIA had been silent for a while but Aloy wasn’t worried because she’d told her that she had something planned with CYAN.

 

The grass got a bit shorter, and she could hear voices coming from ahead. Aloy was glad that the language was familiar. She didn’t know what she’d do if the people didn’t speak the same language as her. Try to sign her business to them? The only hand signs she knew were Nora Braves’ hunting signs Rost had taught her.

 

Aloy stepped carefully outside the grass plains to a patch of cleared land. She could see a village built in the middle of the plains.

 

She was surprised that she also recognised the people. _These are... the Utaru?_ Which meant that this plane of grass was Plainsong. She’d read about it in the Carja glyphs she’d scanned. Aloy remembered seeing one of their kin in Meridian when she’d helped the mourners. She had seemed nice, if not a little bit strange.

 

“Hello,” she said, rising her hands to show that she had no weapons. “I’d like to trade with you.”

 

Her arrival caused a bit of a buzz, with people coming out of the various sized huts made of grass and earth. They welcomed her and gave her food in addition to the supplies she traded with them for the machine parts.

 

Aloy sat with them around their campfire, happy for some company. A couple of women nearby had started to sing, their voices clear and melodious. At first, the song was about grain and around half-way through, it turned into a lament about the Red Raids, which reminded Aloy.

 

 “Do you know Rea? I saw her in Meridian some time ago,” she turned to ask a woman sitting beside her.

 

The woman had introduced herself as the main keeper of the surrounding fields, and as such the highest authority in their village. She had a no-nonsense look, which brightened at the mention of Rea’s name.

“Rea! She’s one of mine. You have seen her? Thank the plains; we feared she’d perished on her journey when she did not return home in time for the new harvest.” She sounded pleased.

 

They talked for a while before the villagers started to disappear to their huts, one by one. Aloy, too, was offered a place in one of the huts, which she gladly took after sleeping so long on the ground.

 

In the end, she stayed for a couple of days. At first she’d planned to continue her journey right away, but after being asked to help eradicate some hostile machines, and to help out with a couple of other odd jobs, she decided to stay for a while longer.

 

The Utaru were a really interesting people, and Aloy couldn’t help but compare them to other tribes she knew. Their reverence of their land reminded her of the Nora, which she found surprisingly nice. Truth to be told, she hadn’t expected to feel homesick for the Nora. The spirituality of the Utary, too, reminded her of the Nora as well as the Banuk.

 

When Aloy finally packed up to leave, the head keeper, Thea, came to see her off. Her bags were much lighter than before, as she’d traded off most of the heaviest parts, replacing them with travel supplies and a couple of new water skins, which the Utaru merchant had insisted that she’d need if she was to travel forward the way she’d said she was going.

 

The provisions were also different from what she was used to; instead of smoked meat and berries, they consisted mostly of nuts and grains mixed with some kind of sweet and sticky substance, and then dried into rectangular pieces and then wrapped into leaves.

 

“Thank you Aloy, for everything you have done here,” Thea said.

 

Aloy smiled at the older woman. “No, thank _you_ for the supplies and advice,” she said kindly.

 

“No need to thank us, Aloy. You have helped one of our kin, not to mention you cleared away the herd of Scrappers terrorising our fields. You have more than earned our help.” The woman smiled, and the smile transformed her severe face, like the sun coming from behind a cloud.

Then she got serious again, and spoke quietly: “Before you go, I must tell you something. I have thought about whether I should tell you this or not. Another outlander has come through our village recently. And he spoke of you, I’m sure of that now. He did not mention your name; only that you are a legendary warrior, with hair like fire, and a glowing blue spear.”

 

Aloy raised her brow. “Really? Who was he?”

 

“A Banuk shaman, on his way to... I don’t know where. We tried to help him but he was... strange.” Thea answered.

 

After a moment, she shook her head. “People were happy when he decided to move on. He spoke much about death and destruction.”

 

Aloy shook her head as well. She knew only too well how Brin made people feel. She wondered if he’d found any more machines to drink from, and hoped he hadn’t. _Well, he did say that he’d venture out to the Forbidden West._

“Yes... I have met him. He is kind of peculiar.” She said then, smiling ruefully.

 

“That is putting it mildly. I just thought to let you know that he said that you’d come here. We did not believe him then, but your arrival proved that he was right after all.” Thea shrugged and threw another log into the fire.

 

“Really. Now that’s interesting...” Aloy said, remembering Brin’s cryptic visions which were way too close to the truth.

 _I wonder if he truly saw what was going to happen._ _But how could that be?_

 

“Be careful Aloy. There are many dangers out there. If you hear a high screech, and high _kee-ee_ noise, take cover and wait for the flock to fly over you before you continue. Breezehawks might be small, but they have very good eyes and they attack together,” Thea warned.

 

Aloy’s eyes widened, and she nodded. “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind. Thank you for the warning.”

 

////

 

The map took her through the grass plains, and she saw more Utaru coming and going. They nodded or waved to her, seeing the honorary headband she’d been given by Thea. The band marked her a friend of their people, Thea had explained. If she needed help, she just had to ask. Without the headband, they might have helped her, or not. With the band, help as well as free passage was guaranteed.

 

Crossing the plains took Aloy a long time, and during her third day, she decided to override herself a mount as soon as she saw one; she’d had enough of walking for a while.

 

The plains didn’t end abruptly. Instead, Aloy started to spot more rocks among the grass, whilst the grass itself got shorter and sparser.

 

 _Oh, finally_ , she mused as she saw a herd of Striders ahead. She didn’t waste time, choosing the machine closest to her before tiptoeing closer and touching the override on the left hind leg, and letting it do its work. The machine successfully overridden, she coaxed it out of the herd and further away from the other machines.

 

“Hello, beautiful,” she murmured to it as she unloaded her bags and attached them to its back. Then she mounted it and continued her journey.

 

 _Yes, this is much better,_ she thought.

 

///

 

Aloy’s Focus activated and GAIA’s voice came through. “Hello, Aloy. Apologies for my absence, I installed some upgrades that CYAN helped to develop and I had to be briefly offline for the installation.”

“Welcome back, GAIA. The installation went well?” Aloy answered, as she steered her mount around a rocky mound.

 

“It was a success. How are your travels going? I see you have made great progress,” GAIA answered, no doubt reviewing the backlog of Aloy’s travels.

 

“All’s fine here. I made some new friends. The Utaru live here, and I stayed with them for a few days.”

 

She thought for a moment before asking her next question: “GAIA, do you know what it does to a person if they drink the machine fluids?”

 

There was a silence before GAIA answered, her voice stern: “Aloy, I really hope you haven’t done anything to warrant this question.”

 

Aloy laughed. “No, no GAIA. I haven’t. I just heard about someone I had run into before. He is a former Banuk Shaman, and he drinks machine fluids, and claims that they give him visions of the Metal World.”

 

GAIA took a while to answer. “Drinking those fluids is truly dangerous. The fluids contain, in addition to toxins and corrosives, a great number of nanoparticles which control different parts of  the machines’ communications and general operation. The thought of what those would do to a human when ingested– I could run an analysis, but I feel that the results would not be...” she trailed off, very human-like in her concern.

 

The AI was clearly rattled about the idea of anyone willingly drinking the fluids. Aloy couldn’t blame her, as she remembered Brin’s erratic babbling and visions.

 

“But what about the visions he said he saw? His talk about the machines, and a rising threat was way too accurate for  having been just a random vision caused by some toxic fumes,” Aloy wondered out loud.

 

“I am afraid I have no answer to that, Aloy. It seems that this world is full of mysteries, even for me,” GAIA admitted.

 

“Come on, surely you have some theory,” Aloy said. She knew GAIA.

 

“Based on the current evidence, I would theorize that the nanoparticles somehow continued working after he ingested them, thus giving him partial access to the machine functions as well as their communications. This, however, is highly doubtful,” GAIA offered Aloy her theory, sounding as though she was still thinking of possible explanations to the phenomenon.

 

“That’s more like it, GAIA. I knew you had thought of something,” Aloy answered. They continued along in silence, GAIA keeping their connection open to view the surroundings.

 

///

 

Traveling with a Strider made the journey much faster. Still, Aloy had to keep a watchful eye on the surroundings. The landscape was grassy hills peppered with trees and large boulders which looked like some gigantic force had thrown them there. The fact that they actually might’ve been thrown there by some unknown machine wasn’t reassuring.

 

Trees and boulders made spotting incoming machines difficult, and Aloy almost missed an incoming convoy of Shell-Walkers. The fact that the sun was setting, and the blue lights of the first Shell-Walker shone bright from behind a big bush, alerted her just in time for her to leave the trail and hide into the bushes.

 

 _Lucky that there wasn’t a Watcher with them. I would’ve been spotted for sure_.

 

The convoy moved on, unaware of her or her Strider. She murmured “Stay,” for the Strider and took a strong hold of its blue cables to keep it from going after the hostiles machines. Aloy knew that it could break loose if it wanted, but it showed no sign of wanting to move.

 

 _We’ll, this is new_ , she thought. Still, she didn’t try her luck by letting go of the cables.

 

Just as the last Shell-Walker was trotting out of her view, she heard an ear splitting metallic screech combined with a high _kee-ee_ sound. _Drat!_ It must be the Breezehawks Thea had warned her about.

 

The bow was in her hand, and an arrow nocked in a split second. The Strider showed no signs of moving and she hesitated a moment before deciding to leave it behind, as she sneaked out of the bush and into another.

 

No attack came from above; instead she heard the familiar whine of a Shell-Walker’s lightning gun discharging.

 

“Fuck!”

 

The last Shell-Walker in the convoy had turned around and spotted her.

 

Aloy rolled to side, evading the ball of electricity flying towards her. When she came up, she let the three tearblast arrows fly, hitting the Shell-Walker in its lightning gun and crate holders. The blasts broke away the crate, still miraculously intact, as well as the attacking arm. The Shell-Walker itself toppled over, and Aloy took the chance to shoot two precision arrows to its vulnerable belly. Its power generator exploded just as Aloy had hoped, stunning the other Shell-Walkers that had come back to inspect the sounds of battle. Aloy didn’t dawdle, as she let three arrows fly to the second Shellwalker’s belly, and it too, fell in a rain of sparks.

 

 _Where’s the third one?_ She wondered, nocking three more arrows and turning her head to scan the surroundings.

 

_No sign of it. It should’ve come to inspect the noises as well._

 

She blended into a nearby bush and sneaked closer to the fallen Shell-Walkers. Ahead of them, she could see the third one a bit futher downhill, fighting a flock of flying machines.

 _Machines attacking other machines?_ She had just enough time for one surprised thought.

 

A burst of blinding electricity lit up the darkening night, as the final Shell-Walker fell and simultaneously electrocuted the machines attacking it.

 

Aloy scanned the nearest machine. The display lit up, showing a flying machine reminiscent of a Stormbird, only much smaller in size. _So these are Breezehawks_ , she mused. _Interesting._

 

She creeped close, wary of the stunned machines. Only, they weren’t stunned. Only one of the machines was still functioning; the rest had been destroyed. A quick consultation of the new machine database entry revealed the reason.

 

“Extremely vulnerable to electric shocks,” Aloy hummed. “So you’re not like Stormbirds after all.”

 

The remaining half-stunned machine was trying to right itself, not quite managing it. It still tried to freeze Aloy when it spotted her, but the weak burst of chillwater was easily avoided.

 

Aloy consulted her Focus once again. The override portion of the entry was curiously empty, as was the information about its manufacturing Cauldron.

 

_I wonder..._

She gently butted the fallen machine with the override end of her spear and waited. At first, nothing happened. She was already moving the spear away when a display appeared. Lines of code flew by before the ordinary override screen appeared. Override now quickly finished, she attached the spear on her back and scanned the machine again.

 

The status of the machine now read ‘FRIENDLY’ instead of the previous ‘HOSTILE’.

 

“Ok... So I can override you. That’s strange. I wonder which Cauldron you were made in?” She mused out loud. “It’s a shame you can’t talk.”

 

The machine didn’t answer, but let out a series of clicks and whirrs. It sounded like it wanted to answer. After a moment’s hesitation Aloy huffed. “Ok, ok. Let’s see if I can repair you,” and whistled to her strider. “But first, I must sleep. I’ll continue this in the morning.”

 

///

 

Aloy straightened her back with a resounding crack after a couple of hours of hard work she’d done on the small machine.

 

“That does it.” She was ready. It was fortunate that the Breezehawk was about the size of a Scrapper. It was easily the smallest flying machine she’d ever seen, even smaller than a Glinthawk. If it had been any bigger, she wouldn’t have had enough parts to repair it. Even now, she’d had to scavenge its fallen friends as well as the Shell-Walkers.

 

Thankfully, the crate she’d shot off the first Shell-Walker had contained parts for the Breezehawks as well. This also hinted that the Cauldron they were manufactured was somewhere on the nearby region.

 

Repairing the machine’s damaged wing had been the trickiest part. Not only did they function like miniature versions of a Stormbird’s jet engines, but they had intricate metallic faux feathers as well.

 

Aloy inspected the design thoughtfully. _So, hovering capabilities and maybe blast attacks as well?_

 She carefully tried flapping the wing by using her hands, checking for any errors in movement. All seemed to function and she let the machine curl its wing.

Aloy knew that using that many resources on one machine was stupid, but somehow she couldn’t bring herself to leave the machine there as it were.

 

“Ok. There you go,” she said at last, hoisting herself to her feet. “I’m ready.”

The Breezehawk let out a metallic squeak and scrambled up. Aloy noticed for the first time that it had very strong-looking legs which had nasty metallic claws attached to them. It shook itself, reminding Aloy of the way she’d seen Glinthawks do while roosting when they weren’t disturbed.

 

“Now, go on. Shoo!” she said to the machine, waving her hand at the same time.

 

The machine shook itself once more before opening its surprisingly big wings and flapping hem. Aloy could hear the jet engines gearing up before it jumped up and took flight, soaring upwards with startling speed.

 

“Woah,” was all that she could say. She hadn’t really seen the Breezehawks fly the night before, and the grace and speed with which the machine flew was all new to her.

 

 _It really is fast_ , she thought to herself before turning to her mount and starting to pack her bags. It was time to move on.

 

When she was finishing her packing, a metallic thump behind her made her turn. Hand on her spear, she was ready to attack when she spotted the source of the sound. The machine bird had come back.

 

Aloy looked at it warily. “Hey again. What’re you doing back here?”

 

The machine let out a series of clicks and whirrs. Its two headlights burned bright blue and the blue cables were in place, signalling that the override was still effective.

 

Aloy looked at the machine for a moment. When it stayed where it was, she shrugged and turned back to finish attaching her bag to the Strider’s back.

 

Checking all the bags for one last time, she hopped on her Strider’s back. The curious bird was still there, making little chirping sounds.

 

Aloy scratched her head. “Well... I’m going to go now. Behave.”

Then, she urged her Strider forward. Behind her, the bird hopped on its wings and took flight, following them.

 

///

 

“Hi, GAIA. Look at my new friend,” Aloy said as soon as the Focus connected her to the AI.

 

 “Hello, Aloy. I see you’ve been busy.” GAIA sounded amused.

 

She paused, accessing the camera feed on Aloy’s Focus. “The unit seems to be functioning unusually,” she continued, after observing the Breezehawk for a moment.

 

Aloy hummed a note in response. “Yeah. It’s been following me ever since I overrode and repaired it.”

 

“This is very interesting. Could you send me the scan results of the machine? I’d like to do some research,” GAIA said then, her voice excited.

 

“Will do,” Aloy answered, packing up the relevant data and sending it to the AI.

 

///

 

Aloy consulted the map. Her destination wasn’t terribly far now. GAIA had provided her with the scans from her satellites, which showed that she was closing in on a large body of water. It looked massive even on the map, and Aloy couldn’t even begin to understand its size.

 

A high _kee-ee_ sound accompanied her descent to the valley ahead. The Breezehawk was still following her. It hadn’t been a hindrance, instead it had even caught her some prey after seeing her hunting.

Aloy shook her head at the memory of a whole boar falling from the sky. It had really taken her by surprise.

 

The satellite map showed that she should travel by the water’s edge. What it hadn’t shown clearly were the enormous ruins of one of the Old Ones’ cities, partially submerged in water.

 

Aloy had decided to make camp near the waterfront. Partially because she was overdue a break. Another reason was that she wanted to look at the city. Sitting around a campfire, leaning her jaw on her hand, she just looked.

 

She couldn’t say why the sight captured her attention so completely. It reminded her of the first time she’d set her eyes on Devil’s Thirst. It had been a city in ruins, bigger than any she’d ever seen before. This one easily dwarfed it. Aloy simply sat and watched as the sun threw shadows across the decayed buildings, light and dark playing and creating changing shapes.

 

An engine’s hum alerted her to the Breezehawk’s arrival.

 

She sat for a while longer, eating a couple of the nut and grain cakes with water and watching the city.

Aloy could see remnants of high towers, their peaks still reaching for the slowly darkening sky. She had no doubt that the city had been a sight to see in its own time. As the night darkened, she could see far away blinks of aquatic machines lurking close to the ruins.

 

 _Maybe Snapmaws, maybe something else_ , she mused and looked at the Breezehawk roosting on top of a large rock beside her.

 

///

 

Morning came swiftly, and Aloy found herself looking at the ruins once more. She itched to go and explore them, but she knew that she had neither time, nor the right equipment for it.

 

 _I’d need a boat for that. It’s too far away to swim there, and there are machines there too._   She looked at the roosting Breezehawk beside her.

 

“It’s a shame you aren’t bigger. I could fly on your back there,”  she said to the metal bird.

 

The machine shook itself and let out a low _caw_ , almost as a reply. Aloy chuckled, and turned back to look at the ruins.

 

Just as she thought of boats, she saw one appearing as if out of nowhere. It was too far for her to shout at the people in it, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to bother them. Instead she gazed at the long, thin boat and its occupants rowing away to the distance.

 

“That’s one more thing I can strike off the Carja storyteller’s list,” she mused as she packed up her things.

 

_So there are more people living here. I mean, I know of the Utaru, but there are others as well. I wonder what they’re like._

In the end, the need to find Elisabet’s home overcame her willingness to explore the strange lands she was travelling through.

 

Aloy tapped her Focus and contacted GAIA. She knew that the AI was still busy with finalizing her upgrades, and due to this, hadn’t wanted to bother her much.

 

“Hey, GAIA. Look what I found this time,” she said, turning to look at the submerged city.

 

“Oh, you must be close, Aloy. If I am not wrong, that is Carson city, near Elisabet’s childhood home,” GAIA answered.

 

Aloy hummed thoughtfully. “It shouldn’t be long now. A day or two, at most.”

 

///

 

It hadn’t taken long, after that final stop. She’d followed the map, past the water’s edge and into the partial desert which started almost right after it. The landscape around her reminded Aloy of the drier parts of the Sundom, not a complete desert, but close to it.

 

When the counter on her Focus dropped under 500, she stopped her mount.

 

She was so close, yet she felt scared. Aloy knew that there was no way that Elisabet would be alive, after all this time. Yet, she had hoped. She had kept the hope alive, until the view of the submerged city. If something as massive as that hadn’t survived, how could a single human?

 

No matter how big the idea of Elisabet was in her mind, the woman that had saved the world was no god, no matter how much Aloy wished that she could be. There was no immortal guardian, no All-Mother, other than GAIA.

 

Aloy took a long breath, breathed in and out, closing her eyes. She had to do this, to be sure. To see where Elisabet’s last journey had taken her. Where she slept forever.

 

She opened her eyes and urged the mount forward.

 

The first thing she saw in the distance was a derelict gate. The metal letters still read ‘Sobeck Ranch’ and Aloy felt tears in her eyes. Something _had_ lasted through all that time.

 

Dismounting the strider, she told it to stay still and continued on foot. The engine hum and a passing shadow told her that the Breezehawk wasn’t far away.

 

Then, Aloy saw a triangle made of pink flowers, like that of surrounding the metal flowers she’d collected on her travels. And there, in the middle of it, a bench and a sitting form.

 

“Elisabet...” she whispered.

Aloy walked forward, stopping in front of the form. It was a person dressed in a suit of armour, not unlike the one she’d cannibalized to make her Shield-Wiever armour. On the chest, she spied a holographic panel, which she toggled.

 

“DR. SOBECK”

 

She looked at the hologram of a face projected, eyes closed, as if sleeping peacefully.

 

So, it was her. She kneeled before Elisabet’s body. After a moment, her Focus activated and GAIA spoke:

 

“I would like to play you a recording of Elisabet which I restored. I think she’d like you to hear it.”

 

Aloy just nodded, not managing to make a sound, fighting the tears in her eyes. Then she remembered that GAIA couldn’t see her.

 

“Yeah, GAIA. Play it,” she said, voice heavy with tears.

 

“Ok, GAIA. Sorry about that. Where was I?”

“You were telling a story.”

“Right. Yeah, so umm. Like I was saying. It was a children’s electronics kit, but I...”

 

After the recording finished, Aloy sat there a long time. She thought about a lot of things. She also picked some of the pink flowers and fashioned them into a small crown, like Rost had taught her to.

 

He’d never told her what the skill was useful for, just said that she might need it someday. Now she was glad she could do something for Elisabet.

 

When she finally rose, she placed the crown gently on Elisabet’s head. Just before she was turning to leave, she spied something in Elisabet’s closed fist. She pried it open gently and found tiny round object, a green and blue globe.

 _This is Earth_ , she realised. _Or at least a tiny model of it_.

 

Aloy smiled despite feeling sad. It didn’t surprise Aloy that Elisabet had carried the tiny Earth with her till the end.

 

“I think she’d want you to have it,” GAIA said.

 

“I’ll take good care of it. I’ll take care of both of them,” Aloy answered, thinking about the tiny globe, as well as the world, as she pocketed the model.

 

She’d stay for a while longer before she’d leave. It was a long journey back and she had a lot to do.

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from Ursula K. Le Guin's Tales from the Earthsea.  
> “Only in silence the word  
>  Only in dark the light  
>  Only in dying life;  
>  Bright the hawk's flight   
>  On the empty sky.”
> 
> Feel free to come and shout at me [on tumblr](http://starkkillerbase.tumblr.com)


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